Best crime movie mistakes of 1983

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Blue Thunder picture

Other mistake: Murphy lands the helicopter on a railway line so an oncoming train will destroy it completely, and this happens exactly on cue with huge, dramatic explosions and flying debris. Apparently the train driver doesn't think this is important enough to interrupt his busy schedule - he doesn't stop the train. We do not hear brakes being applied - the wheels would make a noise like the sky coming down - and the train doesn't slow down at all - it just keeps on going.

More Blue Thunder mistakes
The Outsiders picture

Continuity mistake: When Dally falls off his chair in the drive-in movie theater, you can hear Ponyboy's laughter above them all. When the shot changes to Cherry, you can see Ponyboy with a serious face on in the background but you can still hear him laughing.

More The Outsiders mistakes
Bad Boys picture Bad Boys mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: About one hour and fifty minutes in, the two stars get into a fight and are rolling around the floor. In at least one scene, a cameraman, with a handheld Panavision camera, is quite visible in the middle of the shot.

More Bad Boys mistakes
Scarface picture

Visible crew/equipment: When the first deal goes wrong and the man with the chainsaw jumps out the window you can clearly see him land on a grey crash mat because it lifts up at the corners. (00:27:55)

More Scarface mistakes
Sudden Impact picture Sudden Impact mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: At one point Clint Eastwood is out in the woods practising his shooting with his new .44 auto-mag pistol. While he's doing this, a car pulls up and a black male begins to get out with a shotgun. (We later learn that this is his partner). As the man with the shotgun is opening his door, if you look at the reflection in the car window, you can clearly see the reflection of a man with a camera and another man standing next to him.

More Sudden Impact mistakes
Gorky Park picture

Continuity mistake: In the morgue, the trays containing medical tools change positions between shots. They are strategically moved further up the bodies for the closeup to conceal the genital area, whereas before they only covered the legs. (00:06:30 - 00:07:40)

More Gorky Park mistakes
The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Fifteen Years Later Affair picture

Continuity mistake: The rear view mirror on Solo's convertible is there in wide shots, but missing in all the closer shots throughout the Vegas car chase scene. (00:21:00)

Jean G

More The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Fifteen Years Later Affair mistakes
Smokey and the Bandit III picture

Deliberate mistake: When Cletus is driving the Trans Am as the bandit, it shows him driving to the left and waving at a group of girls. The close up of him driving must be reversed because it looks like the Trans Am is now a right-hand drive. (00:26:45)

More Smokey and the Bandit III mistakes
The Star Chamber picture

Visible crew/equipment: In one of the first scenes, two plain-clothes cops are chasing a suspect. The suspect runs through a house and down some stairs. Look under the stairs. You can see a person trying to hide in the dark under the stairs, presumably a stage hand.

More The Star Chamber mistakes
Tantei monogatari picture

Visible crew/equipment: Naomi Arai snuck back home from the window. When she walks down the stairs to go in the dining room, you can see on the upper floor wall to her left the shadow of the camera crew following her. (00:01:20)

Sammo

More Tantei monogatari mistakes
Curtains picture

Plot hole: Patty ends up in the asylum even though nobody's there to send her and nobody called the police.

Rob245

More Curtains mistakes
BMX Bandits picture

Factual error: In one scene, our heroes go down a water slide with their bikes. Landing in the pool at the end would have made their walkie talkies unusable. But later they still work normally.

More BMX Bandits mistakes
For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story picture

Continuity mistake: At the NAACP headquarters, Medgar Evers joins other people sitting at the table to talk with Sampson. The person sitting next to him casts a long diagonal shadow across the table in each wide shot, and a short one when the camera is on Sampson.

Sammo

More For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story mistakes
Lone Wolf McQuade picture

Continuity mistake: When Kayo is chasing after McQuade in his police car after showing up at his house in the morning to wake him, you see McQuade...before he hits his supercharger, that he puts on his seat belt. He reaches down and puts on a lap only style belt, but you can see in the shots before and after this, that the truck has a three-point style seat belt that goes across the chest...that is still not being used after he "put his seat belt on."

More Lone Wolf McQuade mistakes
Thieves and Robbers picture

Continuity mistake: Tomas Milian jump balconies at night. Then he sees the murder and escapes from the hotel room. Next he drives the car and all of a sudden it's day. (00:32:20 - 00:35:05)

JJJ

More Thieves and Robbers mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.